And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
All Commentaries on Philippians 1:9 Go To Philippians 1
John Chrysostom
AD 407
And this, says he, I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more. For this is a good of which there is no satiety; for see, being so loved he wished to be loved still more, for he who loves the object of his love, is willing to stay at no point of love, for it is impossible there should be a measure of so noble a thing. Paul desires that the debt of love should always be owing; Owe no man any thing, save to love one another. Romans 13:8 The measure of love is, to stop nowhere; that your love, says he, may abound yet more and more. Consider the character of the expression, that it may abound yet more and more, he says, in knowledge and all discernment. He does not extol friendship merely, nor love merely, but such as comes of knowledge; that is, You should not apply the same love to all: for this comes not of love, but from want of feeling. What means he by in knowledge? He means, with judgment, with reason, with discrimination. There are who love without reason, simply and any how, whence it comes that such friendships are weak. He says, in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that is, the things that are profitable. This I say not for my own sake, says he, but for yours, for there is danger lest any one be spoiled by the love of the heretics; for all this he hints at, and see how he brings it in. Not for my own sake, says he, do I say this, but that you may be sincere, that is, that you receive no spurious doctrine under the pretence of love. How then, says he, If it be possible, live peaceably with all men? Live peaceably Romans 12:18, he says, not, Love so as to be harmed by that friendship; for he says, if your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you; that you may be sincere Matthew 5:29, that is, before God, and without offense, that is, before men, for many men's friendships are often a hurt to them. Even though it hurts you not, says he, still another may stumble thereat. Unto the day of Christ; i.e. that you may then be found pure, having caused no one to stumble.
